


Dragons

by trinityrenee



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Zutara Week, Zutara Week 2016, and comes home with druk, and gets druk, and it's a surprise, and it's fluff, and katara didn't tell him she had gotten pregnant before he left, in which zuko goes to train with the sun people, zk week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-17
Updated: 2016-08-17
Packaged: 2018-08-09 07:35:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7792489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trinityrenee/pseuds/trinityrenee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zuko returns from his training with the Sun Warriors, a surprise in tow for his wife, only to find that she has a surprise for him as well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dragons

“Fire Lord Zuko, welcome home,” she was saying. However, golden eyes were glued to the roundness of her stomach that was obviously drastically different from when he had left seven months ago for training. His mind went blank and he froze in place, forgetting the fact that he had a surprise for her and he had missed her so much. But all he could think about was why the hell hadn’t anyone told him.

There was a giddy smile on her face and tears were pricking the back of her eyes and threatening to spill over at the return of her husband after so long. Letters did not do justice to replacing the feeling of having him right there in front of her. He remained in the middle of the doorway to their rooms and she couldn’t help the little chuckle that left her lips as she walked forward.

He was struck by the fact that her elegant walk had turned ambling and awkward with the additional weight. Something trilled from his shoulder and a small flame flickered near his face in warning to the stranger, but Zuko ignored it. Her face and movements screamed at him with the additional strain. He still hadn’t quite wrapped his head around the fact that Katara, his wife, was obviously well into pregnancy.

Katara stopped in front of him and the only thing he could do was stare down at her enlarged stomach with awe. Somewhere in the back of his head and in the pit of his stomach, panic was rising. He couldn’t be a father. How was he supposed to be an Agni-damned father!? He could barely look after himself, let alone a child.

“Looks like you brought a surprise back, too,” she was saying, jarring him from his thoughts. A dark hand was reaching up in offering to the little red dragon that was chattering away indignantly on his human’s shoulder.

“You’re… But… I…” Katara chuckled again. Eloquent as ever, her husband. He cleared his throat, his brow furrowing slightly as he tried to get his mouth to move and form words to say something. Anything would do. Anything but the stuttering, stammering nothingness that was working its way out of his mouth right now.

“Looks like we’ll have two little dragons running around the Palace now,” Katara cooed, her voice and eyes filled with awe. One of her hands was cradling her stomach and Zuko reached for her, his hands hovering a foot away from her stomach on either side. The other hand reached up to where the dragon was perched on her husband’s shoulder.

Druk leaned forward to sniff at her fingertips in wary curiosity. Her fingers were cool, as they had always been, and it was strange for the dragon. In the short few months of his life, he had been surrounded by the people of fire, surrounded by warmth. And here was this woman who had obviously had some effect on his human - he wasn’t sure if it was good or bad. But Druk remembered the way that his human had looked when he described the Fire Lady - cerulean blue eyes as deep as the ocean and dark skin and dark hair that tumbled down her back in waves like the ocean that she could move at a whim. So he supposed this woman who was smiling friendly at him couldn’t be all that bad. 

It felt like forever that Zuko had been standing there, staring at his wife - his pregnant wife’s - stomach. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked finally, his voice so much smaller than he had wanted. Katara moved her eyes from the little dragon to her husband and smiled at him, her eyes softening with love.

“You can blame Iroh. Mostly,” she explained. “I wanted it to be a surprise, anyway, but Iroh...well,” she shrugged. Zuko resisted the urge to run down to Iroh’s stupid little tea shop and strangle the old man for keeping such an immense secret from him.

“You should have told me,” he said harshly. A single eyebrow arched upwards as Katara gave him that look that told him he was being stupid.

“You would have left your training,” she countered. He sighed and shook his head. He wouldn’t have left. “Don’t try to deny it, Zuko, I know you too well.” Okay, so he definitely would have left. But how the hell could Katara and his uncle keep this big of a secret from him? He felt betrayed in some small way…

Katara’s hand went from softly stroking the hardened scales of the dragon to cupping his face gently, fingers melting along his bone structure. Druk let out an indignant trill at being ignored once more and snaked around his human’s neck to perch on the other shoulder, staring down at the woman’s enlarged stomach, captivated as his human had been a moment before.

Zuko was trying to focus on his breathing, and having Katara’s cool hand against his face was helping. He still wasn’t incredibly happy, but he supposed it was too late to voice his concerns now. “I…” he started and then stopped himself. What was he to say? Katara smiled knowingly at him and simply raised herself up on her toes to press her lips against his in a chaste kiss.

“I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you. But you didn’t tell me that you were bringing home a dragon!” she countered simply. As if a baby and a dragon were the same thing. That was when Zuko remembered Druk sitting on his shoulder, making noises low in his throat and talking to himself.

“His name is Druk…” Zuko said simply. “He hatched for me a few months ago,” he continued. “I wanted to keep it a surprise.” I also didn’t want you telling me I couldn’t bring home a dragon, he added in his head. Especially not after she had let a family of turtle ducks live in their tub for a month while the monsoons raged after the eggs had hatched and the ponds flooded. She hadn’t even asked, so why should he?

Katara’s face lit up in another smile as she turned her gaze back to the dragon. “He’s talkative, isn’t he?” she mused. Zuko smirked and nodded softly. Her hand fell from his face as she offered it to the creature again. Druk sniffed it before pressing his head against the tips of her fingers. Zuko couldn’t help but smile. His family was together again and it was complete and there was a new addition…

A cool hand wrapped around his wrist, moving it so that it pressed against her swollen abdomen. He hadn’t even realized he had remained frozen, hands still hovering over her stomach. He blinked as something pressed against his hand from her stomach. Golden eyes stared down at his hand in awe.

“He started kicking as soon as you got words out of your mouth,” she explained. “He wanted to say hello to his father and welcome him home,” Katara stated as though it were the simplest thing in the world. Druk twisted his way down Zuko’s arm, coming to rest on the human’s forearm, wings folded back and tail wrapping around his perch for additional balance.

Both Zuko and Katara stared down at the little dragon as he stretched his neck forward, sniffing at the woman’s stomach. A foot kicked out from the womb, pressing against the skin and pushing it outwards. Druk pressed his snout against the same place. Katara could not help the tears that fell at the warmth that flooded her from the inside out. Zuko wouldn’t admit that he couldn’t either.


End file.
